From somewhere further away, through the palace's remaining magical orbs, Queen Rhiannon watched in horror as the dragon lord enveloped that human in a fierce embrace.
She had worried that the mortal would rat them out, uncertain if he could truly be of any use, no matter what Rowan kept insisting.
But then she saw it with her own eyes, and the question clawed at her: why was that human treated like that, even after returning broken?
The jewel of the elves. She had always been that, but when she failed to compose herself after the disappearance of her child, her family, who once doted on her, no longer bothered to make the effort.
Was it because she was no longer refined? Because she wept and demanded every night?
But to the family who had doomed themselves trying to rescue the youngest, how could they have known that such thoughts consumed her?
Moreover, how could they have known she had been selected for it?
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Meanwhile, elsewhere...
